This invention relates generally to unified receipt and notification of alerts generated by varied devices and applications for conveyance to a user, and more particularly to determining the context of the user, such as the user""s attention and location, for utilization with such unified alert receipt and notification.
Many computer users today receive information from a number of different sources, and utilize a number of different devices in order to access this information. For example, a user may receive e-mail and instant messages over a computer, pages over a pager, voice-mail over a phone, such as a cellular (xe2x80x9ccellxe2x80x9d) or landline phone, news information over the computer, etc. This makes it difficult for the user to receive all his or her different information, referred to also as alerts or notifications, wherever the user happens to be.
For example, a user may be away from his or her computer, but receive an important e-mail. The user may have access only to a cell phone or a pager, however. As another example, the user may be working on the computer, and have turned off the ringer and voice-mail indicator on the phone. When an important voice-mail is left, the user has no way of receiving this information on the computer.
Moreover, many of the alerts may not be important to the userxe2x80x94for example, an e-mail from the user""s manager or co-worker should receive higher priority than the latest sports scores. More generally, the value of the information contained in an alert should be balanced with the costs associated with the disruption of the user by an alert. Both the costs and value may be context sensitive. Beyond notifications about communications, users are alerted with increasing numbers of services, error messages, and computerized offers for assistance.
The prior art does not provide for alerts following the user, for the prioritization of the alerts, nor for considering the potentially context-sensitive value and costs associated with notifications. However, in the cofiled, copending and coassigned patent application Ser. No. 09/596,365 entitled xe2x80x9cNotification Platform Architecture,xe2x80x9d an architecture is described that can receive alerts from a number of different sources, called notification sources, and convey them to any of a number of different outputs, called notification sinks. An analysis is made as to when, whether, and to which sinks a notification should be conveyed. In one embodiment, the analysis takes into account the context of the userxe2x80x94that is, the user""s current location and attentional state.
This invention relates to determining the current context of the user, such as the user""s current location and attentional state. This context can then be used to assist determination as to whether, when and how notifications intended for the user should be conveyed to him or her. In varying embodiments of the invention, the context is determined via one or more of: direct specification by the user; direct measurement using one or more sensors; a user-modifiable profile indicating context; one or more potentially user-modifiable rules that indicate context; and, and inferential analysis utilizing a model, such as a Bayesian or a statistical model.
Thus, embodiments of the invention determine the context of the user, including the user""s location and attentional state (or, focus), which can then be used to assist in the conveying of notifications to the user. The invention includes computer-implemented methods, machine-readable media, computerized systems, and computers of varying scopes. Other aspects, embodiments and advantages of the invention, beyond those described here, will become apparent by reading the detailed description and with reference to the drawings.